For those not familiar with Pratchett, he is mostly known for his Discworld books set in a flat world that rides on the back of four elephants that stand on the back of a giant space turtle. Over the last few years, a few of his books have been made into TV movies (all two parters so far)

The following may contain some minor spoilers.

Going Postal is the story of Moist von Lipwig and his charge to revive the ailing Ankh-Morpork Postal Service. Standing against him is the evil Reacher Gilt who runs The Clacks – a kind of steam-punk telegraph service using signalling lights to send messages across country. Various other characters come to aid or hinder Moist in his quest, notably the huffy and strict Adora Belle Dearheart whom Moist predictably falls for instantly. It might sound a bit boring but throw in a golem (a living clay man), some nutty postal workers, an assassin banshee, some steampunk hackers, sentient piles of mail, neat magical special effects and some tense negotiations over a crossbow bolt or two and there’s enough to keep you entertained.

The portrayal of Ankh-Morpork (and other Discworld locations in previous adaptations) is very close to how I imagine them when reading the books – perhaps because Pratchett draws on well understood shared images. While the Discworld novels are set literally on a different world, there is a familiarity to the underlying whimsical relationship between things that is very earthbound and makes the characters sympathetic and believable even while they fire crossbow bolts during quarrels and befriend golems.

The comedy in Going Postal wouldn’t make most people fall off their chairs but it does provide a steady flow of smirks and smiles. Apart from the obvious slapstick, there is a subtle form of humour which is about recognising things in strange places.

[start spoilery paragraph]
For example, I had to laugh when the evil Clacks service was brought to its knees by subverting its protocols to cause it to lock up. The perpetrators of this crime were immediately recognisable as hackers in their smug self appreciation and mastery of the arcane.
[end spoilery paragraph]

The visual effects were well done in my opinion and while I realise they were done on a budget, I felt they made the magical bits suitably magical and where the sets were a bit obviously staged, I can forgive the producers for not being able to have the whole city stretching out behind every shot.

As far as the acting goes, it was probably just a touch theatrical in approach which I suppose is needed for comedy but the levels weren’t too annoyingly high and there were still moments of genuine drama where I felt a strong affinity with the characters.

Pratchett is often compared to Douglas Adams as a writer and I agree that their style of comedy is similar. If you liked Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy TV Series, you’ll probably like this. Definitely worth a look if you come across it and enjoy a bit of comedy in your fantasy

Wikipedia Going Postal

If you haven’t read any of the books in this series, then I recommend that you skip the rest of this spoilerific review and get hold of the first books in the series and read them. If you like the idea of mixing history up like bringing machine guns into a medieval battle and a bit of sociology and collision of cultures then you’ll like these books.

Also, if you haven’t read this one yet and you care, then come back and read this when you have.

At the end of book three, Miriam zapped herself into the steam age world to escape an exploding building and book four takes Miriam deeper into the world of “New London” and steam-age Boston with all its unfamiliar and dangerous politics. Meanwhile Mike the DEA agent in over his head and his spooky friends zero in on the clan in modern America. The new King Egon wastes no time in executing plans to waste the clan in the Gruinmarkt leaving poor Duke Angbard in a spot of bother. Brill is assigned the job of bringing Miriam back to the clan while some new characters Huw and his gang discover yet another world.

I really really enjoyed this book and found it a little more satisfying than the previous one (The Clan Corporate) because it seemed to end at better place. I remember getting to the end of The Clan Corporate and going “Is that it? Are you just going to leave it all hanging like that!?” This one ends on a cliff hanger too – in the middle of a desperate battle in fact but other characters stories kind of wind up and converge a bit more nicely. I’m looking forward to the next books but hoping if Stross is going to keep the series going for many more books, that the stories can be more self contained. He does this well with the Laundry books ( Atrocity Archives and Jennifer Morgue) but I realise the story of the Clan is on a much bigger scale so it has to be told in parts.

[tags]books, charles stross, fantasy, the merchants’ war, the merchants’ war[/tags]